Is it worth it?

As of this October we have been living in Haiti for four years. Sometimes it feels like an eternity, sometimes like a blink of an eye. At each year's anniversary I look back and try to assess whether we are still following God's call on our lives. One of the biggest questions I ask is, are we making a difference for the Kingdom of Christ? Sometimes it feels like I spend all of my days doing chores that would take an hour in America. Sometimes its so hot, and I'm just so tired, that I want to hide. Sometimes when someone knocks at our gate, I want to ignore it, because usually a knock is someone asking for something and deciding if I say 'yes' or 'no' takes energy I just don't have.

Are we making a difference? Why should we stay here for another year, is it worth it?

I started to catalog some experiences that we have had the last couple of months to remind myself that yes, it is we are working to make a difference. The difference doesn't look like it did in the beginning of our time in Haiti. It has more depth to it and seems to be coming about because of the relationships we have built over these last four years.

Its the married couple that trusts us enough to ask for marriage counseling.

Its the troubled orphan living with her sister who just needs funding to go to a trade-school so she can feel some hope for her future. 

It is encouragement given to other missionaries that are struggling.

Its the family that has gone from abject poverty to now eating regularly, all children going to school, and the mom learning a business.

It is our Elevate employees spending the time to get to know the recipients so that they can encourage and identify those that need extra help.

It is teaching what it means to show love to your kids to those stuck in a poverty cycle of neglect and abuse.

It is 18 children that are going to school this year.

It is the man that stops by to clean our yard and harvest our coconuts who  paid and then is always gifted with the extra coconuts so he can sell them.

It is the relationships. That is why we are here. Jesus said that the main message taught in Scriptures is to

"'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind'; and, 'Love your neighbor as yourself'" Luke 10:27.

If being a kingdom family is about loving others in relationships, then I believe our time is not wasted. My job is to love, its God's job to use me to make a difference.

Rainy Season

Its rainy season in Haiti! The dusty winter is gone and instead we have puddles and humidity...its a lovely change. I gave the kids a homeschool assignment to write a poem on rain. I enjoyed reading their perspective, I hope you do too.  Here they are:

Landen:


I like the rain because it makes everything green.


The green makes the plants beautiful.


When rain is coming it smells good.


I smell the water in the air.


But when your dog's poop gets wet it smells bad.


Once a crazy guy put his goat in the rain to grow.


That's a silly thing to think that a goat will grow in the rain.

Sierra:


It was so dark it was like God had turned the lights off to the earth. Everyone ha disappeared hours ago. Sealing up their homes so it couldn't get in, then all they could do was wait. Tick, tock, tick, tock. Then suddenly it came crashing down like a flood. Trying to get into everything.


There was a certain beauty to it, the Rain. The way it helped things grow and make things green. Once I was told if you put your goat in the Rain it would grow, but I kn ow its not true. Sometimes I feel like I am the only one that understands that we need it, the Rain. It doesn't destroy like they think it does, it brings life in many ways. I don't think they realize they need it to live, to help grow their crops, to cook their food, and they need it for drinking water tooo. The Rain is very important and its very beautiful.

Austin:


Trickle, tinkle, tick, tack,is the sound of the rain in the back.


Splish, splash, drip, drip it keeps falling from up top.


It seems to be bullets from the sky hitting metal with a bang.


They dare not stop to say bye because they like to fall and fly.


The rain is good to other things and turns them happy and green with life.


But when the rain comes from the sky all the people run and hide.


Because when the sky is dark and gray they always dare not stay.


The rain is good for all life even though it comes at night.

(Photo borrowed from another missionary's post). 

Edit

Worst missionary ever!

I've talked a lot about Mdm Fifin because she is in such a pivotal time for helping her family develop. Last week, a family from our Iowa church came to visit us for the week. They were able to raise enough money to put a new roof on Mdm Fifin's house. This 
is a huge deal because the rainy season is coming and there were literally holes EVERYWHERE in her roof. 

Rain usually comes at night in Haiti so when it rained the entire family would be awake and scrambling to move items so they dont get wet. They would also be trying to find a spot for their bodies to sit that would not have rain fall on them...which was impossible. 

Our families were able to be at Mdm Fifin's house while the roof was being put on. The men helped, the kids played with the kids and the mamas talked together (people are people). 

 

Shannon, the Iowa family mom, started asking Mdm Fifin about her faith. I knew that she went to the Baptist church so I was not expecting any surprises. We asked when she was converted and she said THIS YEAR! I was shocked and thrilled. She said that after she saw this year how God had not forgotten her, how he had given her so much, she decided to give it all back to her. 

 

Amazing! Praise God we have a sister in Christ! 

We noticed over the door to their home were the words, "Why do you make me suffer, My God?" When we asked Mdm Fifin about it she said her 20 year old son had written it there...they can paint over that now. 

I have a couple of take aways from this:

1) I am the worst missionary ever. Why didn't I ask her specifically about her faith? I always talk to our Elevate people about the fact that its Jesus' money not mine and we always talk about ways to follow Jesus more. And yet...

2) It's not about me. God doesn't need me. He can bring someone to himself without me but he chooses to use me (us) because it brings Him glory and blesses me (us). 

I'm leaving this last week thankful. Thankful for a short-term missionary reminding me of my mission here in Haiti. I'm thankful to be reminded I am not perfect because if I was I would not need God's grace. I'm thankful he uses me to do His work. Mostly, I'm thankful that God is faithful...always. 

Mdm Fifin update

The year 2016 has been an incredibly blessed year! Some of you receive our newsletter, and so saw the recap of it all. If you didn't recieve it and are interested, please message below or send us an email at imslandfamily5@gmail.com.

 

Do you remember, Mdm Fifin...the woman with 9 children and another one on the way? Mdm Fifin had her baby and it was a girl (only the second out of 10 children!)! She is absolutely beautiful.

 

 
Her baby was born with a club foot so we have been driving her and Ishmaya (the baby) to the doctor weekly so that they can cast it and get it turned. We would love your prayers that the doctors act wisely, minimal pain for the baby and that the foot is turned successfully.


All 9 of Mdm Fifin's children are in our school program, the youngest 4 have never gone to school because she was not able to afford it (no public schools in Haiti). We received their report cards and found that the youngest 5 need additional help to succeed academically. So in January, we hired 2 tutors to spend 2 hours a day 5 days a week to work with them working on schoolwork. 

I have too many stories to share via blog about the ways that this family has already started to changed or the better. It's exciting to see and I can't wait to be able to compare them in a year. 

Please pray with us for Mdm Fifin as her family. Pray for the baby's healing and wisdom for the doctors. 

If you want to help us with the medical expenses or with their tutors please message me. This family is already receiving school sponsorship and a food allowance because of 3 generous donors. 

 

Austin is learning about everything...things break here all the time. He's an hard worker and pretty good at figuring things out. 

 

We have a really great group of missionary friends. This was our Christmas celebration. 

 

Fam pic of 2016

High risk loans

Yesterday we had a meeting with 8 of Elevate's higher risk loans. Most of these ladies are single mamas that are struggling to meet the basic needs of their family. Our meeting was to discuss the "how's" of business. This included evangelizing, marketing, money management, and customer service. 

    Look at this beautiful group!

We asked one of our successful Elevate loan recipients, Chrismene (you may remember her from one of our posts on fb, she sells underwear), to come and share her story and to ENCOURAGE the ladies. She  was great and the other ladies were really receptive to what she was saying. 

  Here is Chrismene in her element

We also discussed with them the DREAM and VISION we have for them. We explained that we know that their current loan will not generate enough profit to support their families. However, this first loan is helping us learn what kind of person they are, these are things that cannot be taught. We are watching to see if they are willing to work, if they understand the importance of paying back a loan and the attitude that they do these things with. So far, every one of these ladies (and one gentleman whose wife was unable to come) is doing a phenomenal job on all of these aspects which means they will qualify for another loan once this one is paid off. 

We told them that we are in this for the long haul. Our goal is to help them get STAND ON THEIR OWN FEET within the next 4-5 years. For three of these ladies, this commitment means helping with food, housing, and school for their children in addition to the micro-loan. 

                                          "He is rich or poor according to what he is, 

                                                   not according to what he has." 

                                                          Henry Ward Beecher

My favorite part was watching the difference between the ladies that have just recently joined the program compared to those that have been part of it for the last year. The new ones had difficulty even sharing their name and the business that they do with the group. They were embarrassed, one in particular could not look anyone in the eye nor could she finish her sentence. The ladies who had been part of the program for a while were able to articulate well and some even asked questions! 

Please continue to pray for these ladies in particular. They have a long road, but if they are willing to do their part, I have incredibly HOPE for them. 

Training...

I was recently talking to Isaac, our Elevate employee, and he was asking me if I wanted Elevate to grow big. My response was 'no'. 

    (Isaac and his wife and 8 week old baby)

I explained that our goal is not to grow big but instead to grow deep. We want to make a lasting impact in the lives of those that are part of Elevate. We want to love them well, encourage them, to disciple them and remind them of the value they can find through following Jesus.  However, I did explain that if God wants Elevate to grow big, then we will listen. 

That opportunity may be arriving. We were recently contacted by another organization that works about an hour away from us. They run a clinic and have a few mamas that need an extra boost to be able to care for their families. They told me that they don't want to just give, they want to help the women help themselves. They had heard about Elevate and so they asked if they could meet with us to hear how we ran it. 

   (Our very first training with another organization who wants to duplicate Elevate)

Soon after this organization contacted us, we ended up talking to a couple of people from an organization that provides food to other organizations. They said they had heard about us and wanted to hear what we do. They asked us if we would consider training other organizations to do what we are doing. 

So...this may be jumping the gun, but imagine with me! We have 50 recipients in the Elevate program and, unless we hire more people, we are tapped. But what if God uses us to share how the Elevate program works with others and each of those other organizations have 50 people. This could be a way to reach, and help, an amazing amount of people in Haiti!! 

In addition to that, yesterday we had our very first meeting to talk to our Elevate recipients about how to evangelize with their business. They were incredibly receptive and I'm excited to see how God uses the to share the Gospel!

I say this all the time, but following Jesus is never boring. You never know what he is gonna do next. It may not even be this, but it doesn't really matter. The possibilities are endless when Jesus is leading. It's the best adventure ever. 

Below are some pics of Elevate recipients and their children which are being sponsored to go to school. God is good. 

Answering the call...

Remeber that Facebook post a few days ago about me feeling sad because this is the time of the year a lot of people come to me asking for support to send their children to school?

Well that post generated enough money to send 14 children to school. I only had 7. So I thought, "Well Lord, who else do you want sponsored?"  

Yesterday, I went to visit two of the children who are now sponsored to get their pictures and stories to share with their sponsor. As we were walking through the the neighborhood of Lafito, my friend Daphne said she wanted to introduce me to someone. 

That is how I met Fifin, a mother of 9 with another on the way. She is shorter than I am and very petite. She said that all of her 9 (10) children have the same father but that their father doesn't live with her or support her. Her kids ages are (20, 16, 15, 13, 10, 9, 7, 5, 3...wow). 

Fifin said that of her 9 children, 5 have never gone to school. She has one little boy who is special needs but when asked if he could learn she gave resounding "Yes!". She said that he loves to ask his momma to show him how to write things, he follows directions well and he loves to be around his peers. 

I asked Fifin how she has paid for the school of of the kids that have gone to school and she said she makes things to sell. I am thrilled to hear this because it shows she is motivated to work to support her children. 

So, I'm pretty sure we found the family that we are supposed to help with that extra funding. 

We will be watching this little family to see if maybe Fifin would qualify for an Elevate micro loan and to see what their food situation is (hungry children don't learn well). 

I'll keep you posted. And a huge thank you to those of you who felt the nudge to help!

Here she is with 5 of her 9. The rest where off playing in the community.